1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring a physiological age of a subject based on pulse wave produced from an arterial vessel of the subject.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It has been proposed to measure a degree of sclerosis of arterial vessel of a subject based on pulse wave produced from the arterial vessel. Such an apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application laid open under Publication No. 61-119252 on June 6, 1986, the assignee of which is the assignee of the present U.S. patent application. The disclosed apparatus selects one of a plurality of reference waveform patterns which correspond to a plurality of respective degrees of sclerosis of arterial vessel, such that the selected reference waveform pattern shows the highest correlation with the sampled waveform of pulse wave of the subject, and determines the degree of sclerosis corresponding to the selected waveform pattern, as a degree of sclerosis of the arterial vessel of the subject. Thus, this apparatus permits measurement of an arteriosclerosis degree of a subject, irrespective of whether experience of the operator is rich or poor.
However, the above-indicated apparatus is not capable of measuring a physiological age of a subject, and accordingly is not capable of permitting calculation of a difference between the measured physiological age and a real age of the subject.